From the archive: Potato crop in Scotland, 20 June, 1950

A FORCE of 50,000 school children will be necessary in Scotland if the potato crop is to be secured.

“The Secretary of State is again compelled to call upon the schools for a large measure of assistance to supplement that available from other sources which will, as in the past, be used to the fullest extent possible,” states a circular which the Scottish Education Department sent to Education Authorities. It states that the committee set up by the Secretary of State has now reported on the sources of labour for the grain and potato harvests. “We recommend that the official schemes should be maintained so long as they are necessary in the national interest… no other sources of labour are available from which substantial numbers of workers can reasonably be obtained and there is no alternative to the employment of school children on a considerable scale for potato lifting.”